This study compared divorced custodial mothers and mothers married to the biological fathers of their children on parenting stress, parenting skills, and self-esteem. The relationship between parenting stress, parenting skills, self-esteem, marital status, and life satisfaction was also examined. A total of 63 subjects, including 31 married mothers and 32 single mothers, was administered the Parenting Stress Index, the Parenting Skills Inventory, and the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale. Subjects also completed a Demographic Data Sheet that included a Likert-type scale designed by the researcher to measure current life satisfaction. All subjects either attended church or lived in a geographic area of North Central Texas that is generally recognized as being somewhat affluent. No significant differences were found on the t-tests comparing the mean total scores of the married and divorced mothers on levels of parenting stress, parenting skills, and self-esteem. A post hoc t-test revealed, however, that the group of married mothers had significantly higher mean total scores on the life satisfaction measure than the group of divorced mothers. Additionally, life satisfaction was found to be associated with parenting stress, parenting skills, self-esteem, and marital status. Specificallly, (a) as parenting stress increases, life satisfaction decreases, (b) as parenting skills increase, life satisfaction increases, (c) as self-esteem increases, life satisfaction increases, and (d) being married is associated with increased life satisfaction. The results of this study would seem to indicate that single mothers have no more difficulty in overall coping than their married counterparts although they are less satisfied with their current life circumstances than the group of married mothers. Additional comparisons of the data suggested that neither group of mothers regarded their children as interfering with their social lives in a major way. Like most previous research, the data also indicated that the single mothers worked longer hours and had less money available for their families' use than the married mothers.

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